Youth Culture Lesson Finding Teachable Moments in Culture From YouthWorker Journal and YouthWorker.com

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Youth Culture LessonFinding Teachable Moments in
CultureFrom YouthWorker Journal and
YouthWorker.com

• Banned
• Fault in Our Stars Kicked Out of
• California Middle School

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What Happened

• A committee for the Riverside (Calif.) Unified
  School District banned The Fault in Our Stars
  from the districts middle schools. The book,
  which deals with a pair of cancer-stricken teens
  who fall in love (and have sex), was expelled by
  a vote of 6-1.

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What Happened

• Committee members were troubled by the storys
  mature content. They also felt that a book
  dealing with such critically sick kids who talk
  about death so much might be inappropriate for
  middle-schoolers.
• Author John Green issued a tongue-in-cheek
  statement regarding the ban.

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What Happened

• I guess I am both happy and sad, he wrote on
  Tumblr. I am happy because apparently young
  people in Riverside, Calif., will never witness
  or experience mortality since they wont be
  reading my book, which is great for them. But I
  am also sad because I was really hoping I would
  be able to introduce the idea that human beings
  die to the children of Riverside, Calif., and
  thereby crush their dreams of immortality.

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What Happened

• The Fault in Our Stars joins some all-star books
  that at one time or another also have been
  censored. Some of the most famous works of
  literature have been banned or challenged,
  including The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby,
  The Scarlet Letter, Call of the Wild and The
  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

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What Happened

• Were not including the Biblea book loaded with
  adult content and controversial themes that
  entire countries have banned. While most school
  libraries still stock the book on their shelves,
  there have been instances of students not being
  allowed to read the Bible, including during free
  time.

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Talk About It

• Just because a book is banned from a school
  doesnt mean its bad. Some books might be too
  mature for some readers. The truth is, we censor
  things all the time. Kids under the age of 17
  technically arent allowed to see R-rated movies
  or buy M-rated video games. Sometimes we censor
  what we see or read ourselves. Thats just part
  of having self-control.

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Talk About It

• Do you think Riverside shouldve banned The Fault
  in Our Stars?
• Is the subject too mature for middle schoolers?
• Is it healthy for young teens to grapple with
  some of the issues the book raises?
• Could the answer for both questions be yes?

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Talk About It

• Madeline LEngle once wrote, If the book will be
  too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it
  for children. Many books written for teens and
  young adults such as The Fault in Our Stars can
  deal with some pretty heavy issues.
• Do you think middle schoolers and high schoolers
  have a better ability to deal with tricky
  subjects than some adults tend to believe?

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Talk About It

• Can you think of a time when your parents
  censored something you wanted to read or see?
• Forbid you from going to a certain movie or
  watching a certain television show?
• Have your parents ever watched a movie with you
  and fast-forwarded through the parts they didnt
  want you to see?
• When things have been censored for you, did that
  censorship make sense?

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Talk About It

• Have you ever tried to guard your younger
  siblings from things you thought they were too
  young to see or experience?
• Have you ever acted as a censor for yourself,
  deciding for example not to see a scary movie
  because you thought it might bother you?
• Have you ever wished you had avoided a book or
  movie or TV show? When?

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What the Bible Says

• A man without self-control is like a city broken
  into and left without walls (Prov. 2528).

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What the Bible Says

• For this very reason, make every effort to
  supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue
  with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control,
  and self-control with steadfastness, and
  steadfastness with godliness (2 Pet. 15-6).

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What the Bible Says

• Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is
  honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
  whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if
  there is any excellence, if there is anything
  worthy of praise, think about these things
  (Phil. 48).